Y BEANS 



Aad Secrt'ts of 



^me Inoeiilatiou 



^ 



Published B> 

Isaac A. Siittltli, 

Warren, Indiana. 



Soy Beans 

And Secrets of 

Legume Inoculation 



^ 



Copyright 1913 

Bv Isaac A. Smith. 






CI.A843225 



SOY BEANS 



During the past fourteen years, practical experi- 
ence and observation has convinced me that the 
Soy bean is probably the best plant known at pres- 
ent to grow protein for domestic animals in what 
is known as the corn belt, and second only to clover 
as an agent to supply nitrogen to the soil-even this 
latter point may be contested, if we consider the 
comparative time each crop occupies the land, and 
are satisfied to remove and sell off the land as small 
a per cent, of the crop as we do of the clover. 

As compared with the cow pea, it is hardier, may 
be planted earlier in the season, and makes its full 
plant growth more quickly. 

One summer I planted a field with Early Brown 
Soy beans and New Era cow peas, mixing the seed 
together in the planter, expecting the cow peas to 
continue growing and making succulence after the 
beans were ripe. But instead, by the time they 
were six weeks old, the cow peas were nearly cov- 
ered, and never made much showing. It grows 
more erect, matures its seed more evenly, and the 
seed is not subject to attacks of the bean weevil, 
while cow peas are sometimes entirely destroyed 
by this pest. It is far more productive of seed, 
and this seed contains about 50 per cent, more pro- 
tein than cow peas. 

Its many varieties, ranging from very early to 
very late, makes its climatic range very great. 

Soil and Rotation 

It will thrive in any soil in which corn will grow. 
It can be made to enter nicely into rotation with 
various other crops. When harvested e^rly it gives 
a fine opportunity to seed with rye, wheat or vetch. 
If this is not desirable a fine seed bed is easily pre- 
pared for a spring crop and may be followed by 
oats, barley, timothj, clover, sugar beets etc. 



Special Uses and Methods . 

The Soy bean looks like a good proposition in or- 
chards either to turn the whole crop into the soil, 
or if conditions are such as to demand immediate 
returns from the crop, it could be pastured with 
hogs, giving a good profit and still adding much to 
the nitrogen and humus of the soil. Further bene- 
fits could be derived by planting seed of the v\ in- 
ter vetch mixed in the planter, and planted with 
the Soy beans. The beans will develop much m.ore 
quickly than the vetch, and after they have ful- 
filled their mission the vetch will develop rapidly 
during the late fall months, at a time when the 
land would otherwise be lying idle. 

All domestic animals become very fond of the 
Soy bean and some wild animals, notably the rab- 
bit and marmot manifest a decided liking for it. 
Being extremely rich in protein, it is of especial 
value as a part ration for young and breeding stock, 
to be fed in connection with corn, timothy, millet, 
fodder, straws of various kind and other carbon- 
aceaus feeds. Brood sows that have had a small 
regular daily allowance seldom eat their pigs. 

I find it makes a fine pasture during the latter 
part of July and August, especially good for grow- 
ing hogs and milk cows. 1 turn in about the time 
the pods begin to form. The best results with 
hogs are obtained by turning in when the pods be- 
gin to turn yellow, and feeding about half as much 
corn as the hogs will eat if they are young and 
growing, and more if the hogs are approaching ma- 
turity, thus supplying the protein according to 
the needs of the animal. August 29, 1910, 1 
weighed two old sows, ten small pigs and 126 March 
ani April pigs and turned them into six and one- 
half acres of Early Brown Soy beans that were just 
beginning to ripen. These beans were about an 

—2— 



average crop for mixed clay and loam soil, ranging 
from heavy white clay to a deep black loam. In 
addition I fed them dry corn twice each day and 
kept water before them all the time. They had 
the beans about cleaned off in thirty-one days. 
When I again weighed and took account of the op- 
eration I found that in addition to the beans, I had 
fed them 179 bushels of corn. Four of the shotes 
had died from various causes, but I still had a net 
gain of 5350 pounds. Deducting the usual ten 
pounds gain for each bushel of corn fed straight 
with water, I still had a net gain of 3560 pounds or 
547 pounds for each acre of beans, the value of 
which I leave for each reader to estimate in his 
own market. The hogs harvested the crop, pre- 
pared it for market, and returned the waste to 
the soil. 

I am often asked which will produce the most 
feed for hogs, an acre of beans or an acre of corn. 
The probability is that for a sinorle season, corn 
would, but a two-thirds acre of corn and a third 
acre of beans fed together will produce more 
pounds of pork than either alone, and this advan- 
tage would constantly increase through a series of 
years, by rotating the crops, if the same land is to 
be continuously used for this purpose. 

If to be used for hogs only, I prefer to plant one 
half the field with an early variety and the rest 
with later ones, cultivate all until the early ones 
commence to bloom, then sow Dwarf Essex rape on 
the part growing the early variety. The hogs will 
clean up the early beans first, and the rape will 
grow while the hogs are pasturing off the late ones, 
and add considerable value to the crop. 

In pasturing it is always better if water and a 
portable shelter is supplied on the field, and stock 
kept there during the pasturing period, as this pre- 
vents waste of fertility, not allowing it to be scat- 

—3— 



tered along the lanes and in barn yards, and wast- 
ed as is the common practice. * 

As a soiling feed for milk cows they are excel- 
lent. By planting both early and late varieties as 
early as the season will permit, and begin cutting 
as soon as they become well developed, a good sup- 
ply of very rich succulent feed may be supplied m 
succession, and at a season when it is badly needed. 
A considerable feed value and fercility may be se- 
cured by planting a half bushel or more seed of an 
early variety, per acre, between the corn rows, at 
the last cultivation, without apparent damage to 
the corn. 

A valuable hay may be made if cut about the 
time the pods are forming, before the stems get 
hard and woody, and cured as other hay is cured, 
allowing a day or two more time. This must be 
done as early as the middle of August, in this cli- 
mate or there is danger of insufficient heat to pro- 
perly cure the product. 

As a silage plant it is highly recommended by 
some and is a plant worthy of trial, to be mixed 
with corn to give the balanced ration, but never 
alone. The larger growing medium late varieties 
are better for this purpose than the early dwarf 
ones. They may be grown in the row together with 
the corn, or planted separately and mixed in the 
cutting box. I have had no personal experience 
with the silo, but I am of the opinion that in prac- 
tice, it will be more satisfactory for most farmers 
CO rely on corn silage for succulence, and store the 
cured beans in some convenient place and give the 
stock their allowance of these regularly as a dry 
feed. 

I do not advise anyone to raise beans to be sold 
on the market for seed, until he has grown them a 
year or two and learned their peculiarites, and the 
requirements of the market. The main pqint in 



m\ 



the proposition is, will it pay? For the novice it 
will be a risky proposition. The Soy bean as such 
is not yet a staple article of commerce like beef, 
pork, butter and eggs and he may have considera- 
ble difficulty in finding a customer who understands 
the full value of hisprodact, hence it will be safer 
for him to transform his beans into an article 
whose value is generally prized, and market them 
in that form. For the year 1910, 1 found I received 
more clear money per acre from the field of beans 
I hogged off than for another one that I thought 
betteJ, which I cut, threshed and sold for seed, be- 
sides the hog money came in three or four months 
earlier, and the hogging off process returned to 
the soil about 60 per cent, of the bean fertility to 
boost the next crop of corn— dairy farming would 
have returned a still larger per cent, of fertility. 
In 1911 I cleared more cash money from the land 
harvested and seed sold, but to offset this, I waited 
longer for the returns and sold fertility which if it 
had been fed to stock, would have made the land 
better. 

The necessity of selling available fertility from 
the farm is a difficult problem to understand and 
adjust, and its practical application and ultimate 
analysis is but vaguely comprehended by a great 
many tillers of the soil. The popular thought and 
practice have leaned too strongly toward getting 
the largest and quickest returns out of the great 
store house of past ages, and '*blow in" the same 
in keeping up with the luxurious and expensive cus- 
toms of the day. It is plainly evident that this 
manner of living has already drawn heavily on na- 
ture's stores, and unless this process is changed 
will surely produce trouble in future years. Should 
I advise you, I would say, sell as little fertility as 
you can from the farm and return as much as you 
can to your soil, it will draw^ for you a big inter- 



est. Your soil is your individual bank, the stock 
and the dividends are yours, and if you ffersist in 
drawing on your capital for current expenses, 
sooner or later you must go to the wall. 



Planting. 



Before planting, the land should be finely pre 
pared about the same as in making a first class seed 
bed for planting corn. More care is necessary in 
planting and starting beans, than is usually given 
to corn, especially in clay lands that are liable to 
form a surface crust after heavy rains A crusted 
surface interferes more with beans in coming up, 
than it does with corn, although corn is often seri- 
ously injured by the formation of a crust which 
nrevents the young plants from coming through 
This is the only difficulty I have experienced in 
getting a good stand of beans. Several methods 
of planting have been tried, each with a degree of 
satisfaction. Many use the common grain drill, 
drilling solid or with all holes open if for pasture 
or hay, and covering part of the feed holes if beans 
are to be cultivated and grown for seed. The one 
horse grain drill I find very useful to plant them 
in corn at the last cultivation. 

The method by which I get most satisfactory re- 
sults on my own land, is to plant the rows from 
twenty to forty inches apart according to soil and 
variety of bean and the available tools for cultiva- 
tion, and cultivate. The thinner the soil and the 
smaller the growth of the variety, the closer the 
rows should be, and the richer the soil, and the 
more robust the variety, the wider apart. For 
most soils and varieties about twenty eight or thir- 
ty inches is best, but remember it is always better 
to plant them wide enough apart to cultivate them 
with your available tools. 

The implement with which I prefer to do this 

—6— 



1 



planting is a good corn planter with furrow open- 
ers set so as to shove the dry soil aside, and allow 
the beans to be covered nicely pt an even depth in 
the moist soil at the bottom of the shallow furrow^ 
Do not cover deeper than is necessary to keep the 
beans moist until they sprout. This, I think is al- 
so the best plan for planting corn. If your plant- 
er will not space the rows the desired width, you 
may be able to get a new set of holes drilled in the 
frame bars, so as to move the boxes and shoes clos- 
er together. I set the feed so as to drop about six 
to eight beans in each foot of row. This will re- 
quire about thirty pounds of seed of the larger 
seeded varieties to the acre in rows forty inches 
apart and forty pounds s^ed if rows are thirty 
inches apart. Of the smaller seeded beans about 
two-thirds as much. If drilled solid for hay, or 
pasture, use from one bushel of small seeded to 
two bushels of the large seeded beans per acre, in 
closely drilled rows, and cultivate with harrow. 
If for hay plant as early in the season as conven- 
ient. 

Cultivation 

In cultivating I use the harrow soon after plant- 
ing if it rains and a crust is threatened, or if weeds 
are liable to appear. This assists the young plants 
in coming through the ground and destroys many 
weeds before they get a hold on the soil. This 
harrowing is made possible by planting in furrows. 
I also use the harrow once or twice after plants 
are up, always harrowing in the heat of the day 
while plants are tough. They some times break 
badly early in the morning. Keep harrow teeth 
sharp, set at an angle, and keep them clean. Later 
cultivation is done with ordinary corn cultivators, 
keeping the land level if beans are to be cut with 
machine. 

—7— 



One of my customers who raises sugar beets, 
used his beet cultivator last season for his beans, 
and expressed himself well pleased with the result, 
[t looks to me like a two horse beet cultivator set 
to cultivate two rows, about thirty inches apart, 
at one passaere, would be a very convenient and 
satisfactory way of doing the work. The horses 
could be jockied or checked apart so as to straddle 
both rows very nicely. 



Harvesting 



I have already stated all I have to say about the 
handling of green beans under the head of Special 
Uses and Methods. When allowed to ripen fully 
before harvesting tne foliage will drop off and add 
considerable fertility to the soil and improvr its 
mechanical condition, adding materially to ^he 
next crop. 

The ripened beans should be cut after the pods 
have turned yellow and before they have become 
dry enough to shatter badly. This may be done 
with a mower, just as you mow grass for hay, let- 
ting the beans cure in the swath and raking them 
m wind rows in the morning while they are damp, 
or a side delivery attachment may be used as in 
cutting clover seed. A cleaner job may hv accom- 
plished with a bean harvester, especially where 
stalks are short with pods low on the plant. The 
taller growing varieties may be cut very nicely 
with a wheat binder, and set in small shocks to dry. 
Small fields may be cut with a mowing scythe, or 
chopped off with a heavy sharp hoe. 

As soon as the beans become well cured they 
f^hould be stored under shelter, either with or with- 
out threshing. They can be threshed and fed, 
either whole or mixed with other grain and ground, 
«>r they may be fed in the straw just as they are 
hauled in from the field. This latter is the best 

-8— 



I 



way to feed them to poultry in the winter, and will 
furnish them with needed exercise. I esteem the 
straw from these threshed beans as being of as 
much value as shredded fodder. In harvesting it 
is difficult to secure all the beans, especially with 
the dwarf varieties. Many pods will be set near 
the ground and will be either missed entirely or 
clipped off and cannot be gathered with the straw, 
or it the beans have become a little dry many will 
shatter out and be left on the land. But these 
need not be lost, as they make the finest of pasture 
for growing pigs and brood sows during the late 
fall and early winter. 



Threshing 



Any machine that will handle wheat and oats 
properly can be made to thresh the beans for feed 
by taking out the concave teeth, or most of them, 
but if the beans are dry enough to thresh proper- 
ly many will be split, and many more will have the 
skin jarred loose rendering them unfit for seed. 
If they are damp and tough, the beans will heat 
and mold in the sack or bin. For home planting 
the split beans may be screened out by using a 
sieve made of queen-excluding zinc such as is used 
by beekeepers, and used for feed. In a small way 
the seed may be flailed out; some corn shredders 
may be made to do a fair job. I have heard of a 
clover huller being rigged to thresh them. Where 
there are enough beans raised for seed to justify 
the expense, a regular bean huller should be used. 

Yield of Grain 

The yield of grain by test plats taken in differ- 
ent parts of the fields have ranged from 13.4 bush- 
els per acre on thin white clay to 40.8 bushels on 
rich grayish black land averaging about 26.5 bush- 
els on my mixed clay loam where cultivated, and 



considerably less when planted close and not culti- 
vated Machine measure however, ha^ usuallj' 
iiallen three to five bushels short of these figures 
when dealing with the dwarf varieties, on accout 
of shattering and other losses. 

The Seed 

In buying seed for northern latitudes never ac- 
cept that grown in the south. If you do you will 
purely be disappointed. Several persons have re- 
ported their dissatisfaction with these seeds. I 
cried them once myself; I got a bushel from a big 
r^eed firm in Chicago. They cost me $4.65. They 
were full of foul seed and trash. As it was plant- 
ing time when I received them, I concluded to hand- 
pick and plant them. I picked out a large handful 
of cockle burs, and 1,284 morning glory seeds. I 
Had ordered an early variety, but not a single bean 
jfot ripe before they were killed by frost. A cus- 
comer in west Tennessee wrote me that the Mam- 
moth Yellow, the common Soy bean of the south, 
and which he had grown for several years never 
?ot ripe for him until in October even if he plant- 
ed it in March, and he was seeking an earlier bean 
for his locality. 

Never accept seed that contains noxious weed 
,^»eeds. The seeds of some of our worst weed pests 
Are contained in Soy beans and cow peas, notably 
ir.he wild morning glory, Bull or Horse nettle and 
Butter print, anyone of which it is very difficult 
\nd expensive to eradicate when once established. 
I am utterly unable to comprehend why our gov- 
ernment is so lax in permitting our soil to be filled 
with pests, through the marketing of seeds both 
native and imported, grown on land that should be 
ojiuarantined against its use as a seed producer. In 
addition to our native , pests, we Americans are 
importing and scattering foreign selections, that 

—10- 



I 




A stalk of Soy Beans that had a chance 
and made good. 




Select samples of roots with nodules 1 4 

weeks after planting. Concentrated 

Inoculate used with seed. 



4 



are vastly more pernicious than any with which we 
have hitherto had to deal. They belong to various 
species, that represent the survival of the fittest 
of all the thorns and thistles with which 
the jrround was cursed, having their persistency 
intensified by ages of warfare which has been 
waged against them in the old world without erad- 
cation. The American farmer seems to be calmly 
sleeping while the enemy, unmolested, is quietly 
seeding our fair fields with his choicest selections. 
The result is a rapidly increasing cost to the Amer- 
ican tiller of the soil, each year making more labor 
or smaller returns. This certainly aflTects the cost 
of living, and is an item in which every person who 
buys a mouthful of feed is interested, especially 
will this apply to those who come after us, and for 
whom this influence will be compounded at a fear- 
ful rate. 

Varieties 

In the matter of choosing varieties much depends 
on how and when you want to use your crop. The 
early varieties do not grow as tall, especially on 
thin soil as ti.e later ones. They bear many of 
their pods near the ground, and are difficult to 
harvest without leaving a good many beans on the 
land, but they are of especial value for early use 
and for late seeding. 

The late varieties are best used where seeding 
can be done early, about corn planting time, es- 
pecially on thin land. They produce more rough- 
age and about as much seed as the earlier ones. 
They set their pods higher up on the stalk and 
cleaner work can be done in harvesting. They 
give satisfaction for late pasture, soiling and stor- 
ing for winter in the dry form. They will make 
more humus in the soil, when filling the office of a 
fertilizer. The Early Brown, Ito San and Early 

—11— 



Yellow are the best among the well known early 
varieties, there being but little choice^ between 
them. 

THE EARLY BROWN 

is a rather large brown seed without other special 
markings than its color, which is characteristsc. 
It grows about twenty-eight inches tall in good soil, 
shorter in thin soil, some-what branching, and 
ripens in about 90 to 105 days according to soil and 
season. It is a heavy yielder. 

THE ITO SAN 

is very similar in all respects to the Early Brown 
except in color of the seed, which is a dingy white 
with a small brown spot at one end of the hilum 
on each bean, by which it may be identified. 

THE EARLY YELLOW 

is very similar to the above except in color, which is 
more yellow than Ito San, without ary definite in- 
dividual marking by which it can be idenitified 
from the other yellow and later beans, and in buy- 
ing seed it is best to avoid this variety unless you 
are sure of its identity. 

The above three varieties are the best ones for 
early hogging off or late sowing as a catch crop. 
When planted between corn rows after the last 
cultivation in July, they will develop a smaller 
plant, and ripen seed in seventy or seventy-five 
days, emulating the common reputation of the 
cockle bur which is said to always ripen its seed 
before hard frosts, no matter when it starts to 
grow. 

THE HOLLYBROOK 

is a midseason variety, at least two weeks later 
than the three above mentioned. It grows erect, 
with a rather large stiff woody trunk with but few 
branches, and about thirty-three inches tall in 

-12— 



good soil. It bears its pods in clusters about main 
stem and is a a good yielder. It is a good second 
early for pasture, for hogging off and for putting 
up for winter use. 

THE SABLE 

is a small jet black seed, grows about forty-two 
inches tall on good soil, but is not very firmly fixed 
in some of the characteristics of thfe growing plant. 
In this respect it is inclined to manifest a sporty 
disposition and varies in style of plant, color of 
bloom, etc., but is a heavy yielder of forage and a 
good one for soiling, hay or silage, and is also a 
good yielder of seed. It should not be planted late 
in the season as .t is a late variety about ten days 
later than Hollybrook and requires a rather long 
season. 

THE MAMMOTH YELLOW 

is an excellent variety for use in the southern 
states, but worthless in the north because of its 
extreme lateness. 

There are hosts of other varieties, some of them 
clamoring for a front place in the list, but none 
with which I am acquainted have established a rep- 
utation for superiority over those given above. 

It is not likely that the list of early varieties giv- 
en above will be greatly improved upon in the 
near future but for midseason and late varieties 
there is more chance for improvement along cer- 
tain lines. 



13- 



LEGUME INOCULATION 



When you buj complete commercial fertilizers, 
the nitrogen in them is what you pay the big price 
for at the rate of from 15 to 17 cents per pound. 
Above every acre of land to which you apply this 
fertilizer, there is floating approximately seventy 
million pounds of this same element, as free as the 
rain that falls in a wet time, in fact so free that 
none of your farm plants can use it, without the 
help of a third factor stepping in and tying this 
nitrogen up in such a shape that youi plants may 
feed on it. 

If you possessed the magic wand whereby you 
could at will transform this exhaustless supply of 
nitrogen into nitrates, and pile them up ready for 
sale, you could soon a possess fortune that would 
make the barons of wealth look like the proverbial 
thirty cents. But this you can not do, and it is a 
fine thing for the rest of us, and you too, that you 
can not. However, there ip a class of little organ- 
isms, invisible to the naked eye, that will help you 
to get a part of it at a big profit, if you will accept 
their services, and make their surroundings con- 
genial. They will enable you to secure your legiti- 
mate share of this great wealth, without the inter- 
ference of any trust, syndicate or other combine. 

I thought I would tell you some of the nice things 
about this little organism before I told you that 
it is a bacterium, so when you found out, you 
would not be afraid of it, but would know that it 
is one of the good kind. 

It existed and plied its trade secret, that of trans- 
forming free nitrogen into a commercial product, 
which it bartered only to its favored legume for a 
home and other necessities, long ages before its 
identity was discovered by man. In the year 1884 

-14— 



a German Scientist named Hellriegei, proved that 
the nodules on the roots of clover contained bac- 
teria which had the power cf gathering- nitrogen 
from the air and transforming it into available 
food for clover. This then was the secret. of why 
clover was a good fertilizer. The key having been 
discovered, it was soon found that all legumes 
possessing nodules containing bacteria, were col- 
lectors of nitrogen and added fertility when turned 
back into the soil. The family name of these nitro- 
gen gathering bacteria is Azotobacter Chroococ- 
cum which name does not seem to have injured its 
health, or interferred with its activity in the least. 
In fact, since it has been thus honored it has be- 
come quite popular, and has multiplied and pros- 
pered more than before. 

If these little helpers are already in your soil their 
surroundings is all you need to look after, and if 
you mike these all favorable they will muliply at a 
rate almost beyond the comprehension oi man, and 
collect this nitrogen for you. If they are not 
present, you will need to go where they are, and 
get some and put them in your soil where you have 
the right conditions supplied. To make the condi- 
tions right the soil must be drained of all surplus 
water. It must not be acid, if acid after draining 
use lime. To do their best, they mubt nave plenty 
of potash and phosphoric acid in the soil. They 
must also have the roots of some legume plant to 
live on. They will not associate with any plant 
whose seed is not borne in pods. Furthermore 
they are divided into families and each family is so 
particular that it must have its own favorite legume 
as a host, or it will refuse to do business for you. 
One kind will associate with the clovers, red, white 
and alsyke, another with the Alfalfas, another 
with cow-peas, and still another with Soy beans. 
Some kinds are natives to your soil, having been 

—15- 



associated with wild Ieg:umes growing in the foresT 
and prairie, and will be ready to co-operate with 
cultivated plants in the same family. Others will 
be absent altogether; this will usually be found to 
be true of those families of legumes that have 
never been grown in the locality. The only way 
to determine the presence of the specific bacteria 
you desire, is to examine the roots of the particu- 
lar legume that you wish to grow, and if nodules 
are not found it is safe to be guided by the con- 
clusion that the bacteria are absent. If not pre- 
sent you must supply the kind that thrives with 
the legume you want to grow. This may be ac- 
complished by distributinT soil from an inoculated 
field where the crop has been grown the year pre • 
vious. This is a rather slow and laborous task be- 
cause of the bulk and weight necessary to make a 
good job. If you can reduce this bulk and still 
keep the conditions for the preservation of these 
bactaria the same as we find them in nature, you 
will at once have a preparation that can be handled 
more easily and with less expense. The farther 
this concentrating process is carried, the more con- 
venient and eflficient will be the product. 

Bacteriologists tell us that these bacteria are 
about one twenty-five thousandths of an inch in 
diameter. If you will cube the number 25000, you 
will have fifteen thousand six hundred and twenty- 
five millions or about the number there would be 
in a single cubic inch of bacteria. Now if you can 
preserve these in a few pounds of soil, you will still 
have many millions of them in a single pound. 
You can obtain very good practical results in the 
following manner: 

When plants are nearing maturity, collect of the 
same family of legumes which you desire to inocu- 
late, roots with adhering nodules and pack these 
mingled with a small quantity of loam free from 

—16- 



sand, in a bed frame or box made of old weather- 
beaten or other lumber that is free from turpen- 
tine and tannin. Cover with a slatted covering- 
sufficient to prevent heavy rains from washing out 
the bacteria, and still open enough to let sufficient 
water through to keep the mass moist. Leave this 
undisturbed in a protected place out of doors un- 
til planting time. Then sift through a fine screen 
and it will be ready for use. This should give you 
a preparation sufficiently concentrated that from 
two to four pounds will be ample to inoculate a 
bushel of seed pretty thorou5?:hly. 

Because of the small bulk, extremely richinbac- 
taria, this preparation may be mixed directly with 
the seed in the planter, just before planting, and 
distributed during the planting operation, with lit- 
tle trouble, This procedure is facilitated and made 
more efficient by slightly dampening the seed be- 
fore mixing with a little water, especially if a little 
glue has been dissolved in it, then add the inocu- 
late and thoroughly mix, when nearly every bean 
will have bacteria adhering to it, which as soon as 
the bean sprouts, will be on the spot ready for 
business. 

I have never used the glue myself, but the re- 
ports I have received indicate the best results when 
used. Care should be exercised not to add enough 
to make the seed stick together in lumps. Any- 
thing that will make the inoculate stick to the 
beans, will prevent it from settling to the bottom 
of the seeder box, and guarantees a mere perfect 
distribution. The seed should never be dampened 
until ready to plant, and the inoculating material 
should never be left exposed to the direct rays of 
the sun for any continued period of time. These 
are the principles which I follow when preparing 
the concentrated inoculate I use, improving their 
application as experience dictates. Out of a large 

—17— 



number of reports from customers, not a single fail- 
ure was reported last year, the majority.reportinff 
from 75 to 100 per cent of the roots bearing no 
dules. The first vear the nodules will not be as 
numerous, but will be larger than in succeeding 
years, after the soil becomes filled with an excess 
of bactaria. Do not expect first class results in 
wet or acid soil. It is better for the current crop 
if you get all the plants inoculated the first year, 
but this cannot be expected any more than you can 
expect a perfect stand of corn with an ear on every 
stalk. If as many as ten per cent, of the roots 
have nodules, that will place enough bacteria in 
the soil to insure a complete inoculation the follow- 
ing year. 

Although these germs will retain their vitality 
in neutral and slightly alkaline soils for several 
years, they are not so long-lived under ordinary 
shipping and storage conditions, therefore they 
should not be prepared until a short time before 
they are to be used. 

My experience has been chiefly with Soy beans 
but the some plan may be applied to other legume 
bacteria, always bearing in mind that in protection 
from destroying influences such as the sun's rays, 
chemicals of various character, excessive dryness 
etc., and from waste, as by washing out and scat- 
tering of the bacteria by excessive rains, lies the 
hope of practical success. 

The locust tree and other legumes that are to be 
transplanted, can be started in nurseries where the 
soil is inoculated, after which the roots of the 
young seedlings will carry the bacteria to their per- 
manent location. 

It must be remembered at all times that your 
plants, like your animals, must have in their food 
all the elements entering int(» their physical struc- 
ture, or they cannot develop. 

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If any element is eaten in excess by an animal, 
such excess cannot be assimilated and becomes a 
burden to the animal's system. It must be thrown 
off, not only being" a waste of the substance itself, 
but a tax upon the animal's system in its effort to 
rid itself of this burden. If the same element 
should be furnished in too small a quantity, the 
assimilative powers of the animal appropriates all 
of this element within its reach, and as much of 
the other elements as it can combine with it, eith- 
er for growth or maintenance, after which all the 
residue becomes a useless burden, and must be 
gotten rid of, and a waste of valuable food is the 
result. The minimum ingredient always deter- 
mines the amount of nutriment assimilated by the 
normal animal econcmy. 

Carrying this thought to the extreme, and sup- 
posing the young animal to be entirely deprived of 
One element, protein for instance, and all the other 
elements supplied freely, muscular development 
must cease because there is none of the essential 
material to make muscle out of. Then nature's 
processes recognizing the fact that there will be no 
further need of bone to support the muscles, re- 
fuses to assimilate the minerals which enter into the 
bone structure, growth ceases, and all the feed be- 
comes waste. 1 think it is evident to the reader's 
mind, that to obtain the most rapid and economic 
gains in feeding an animal, that animal must be fur- 
nished in its feed all of the various elements of 
wh'ch its body is composed, in about the propor- 
tions and quantity of their ready and complete 
assimilation by the animal's system. 

The same specific laws hold good in plant life 
as with animals. The essential elements of plant 
life which are lacking in most worn lands, are ni- 
trogen, phosphorus and potassium, and a deficien- 
cy of either one will limit the deveiopement of the 

—19— 



plant and its power to assimilate the others. For 
instance available potash and phosphoria aoid may 
be present in abundance in your soil, but the nitro- 
gen compounds may be very deficient. Your plant 
will use all the nitrogen that is available within its 
reach, but will not use any more of the other sub- 
stances than it can combine with its stock of nitro- 
gen. 

Now if your plant is a legume and properly 
stocked with its family bacteria, and not finding 
the proper amount of nitrogen in combination in 
the soil, it will reach out through these parasitic 
servants and draw on the free store of the atmos- 
phere, which enables it to consume more largely 
of the other elements, and effect a more vigorous 
developement, thus relieving you from the necessi- 
ty of purchasing the nitrogen for its use. The 
same law of necessity holds good in the case if ni- 
trogen is present in abundance, and either of the 
other essentials should be absent. Therefore if 
you want your legume with its helpful bacteria to 
bring you good returns see that these elements are 
not lacking. 

Before paying out any large amount of money 
for fertilizers, it is wise to determine wherein your 
soil is deficient and buy only those elements that 
are lacking and which you cannot supply more 
cheaply in some other. Use the same tactics you 
would in buying for your own table, or food for 
your stock. You may be able to obtain much val- 
uable information from your nearest Agricultural 
Experiment Station along this and other lines, if 
you are not too bashful to make your wants known. 
'. find the managers of my own State Experiment 
Station at Lafayette very courteous, obliging and 
as helpful as the funds apportioned to their use 
will permit. They will even sometimes send out 
search warrants in the form of bulletins, special 

—20— 






cars, district short courses and institute worker 
to find and help farmers, but there is one thing- 
thev will not do, and that is to fill your pockets 
with gold, unless you will push the flap aside, open 
the pocket a little and display some willingness to 
carry the burden after it is thrust upon you. 

Often there is a considerable quantity of phos 
phorus and potassium especially the latter in the 
soil, locked up in an insoluble form and no more 
available for plant food, than the free nitrogen of 
the air. These are liberated by chemical action 
brought about in the process of cultivation, more 
rapidly in the presence of humus, presumably the 
work of a specific bacteria acting upon the soil com- 
pounds, in a manner similar to that in which the 
legume bacteria gathers the nitrogen from the air. 
The power of these little organisms to change the 
form and composition of special substances, may 
be better understood when we remember that 
there is an insect that eats its way into solid iron, 
not by means of teeth but by means of a peculiar 
acid secreted in its own body. To the Doubting 
Thomas to whom this may seem incredible I will 
ask him to remember that his own existence de- 
pends upon similar arrangements within his anato- 
my, whereby the food he eats, utterly unfit to en- 
ter his blocd circulation, is so changed by his own 
organic secretions, that it becomes the proper ma- 
terial to enter the life sustaining current-even 
small quantities of metallic iron may be thus ma- 
nipulated. 

For both plants and animals the food must be 
put in available form, in other words, digested; 
the chief difference being, that in plant life these 
preparatory changes are more nearly completed 
outside the organism cf the consumer through in- 
terposition of external agents, while the animal 
carries within its own body the necessary arrange- 

-21— 



FEB 



21 1913 



ment for much of this work. To encourage this 
form of disintegration, remove all excess of water 
by draining, of acid by liming, and the deficiency 
of humus by incorporating stable manure and 
other vegetable fibre into the soil. Then cultivate 
as freely as conditions will permit. 

In our efforts to build up a prosperous and per- 
manent agriculture, we must keep continuously 
before us the fact that all plant life depends upon 
a series of chemical changes, mutually dependent 
upon each other, forming as it were an endless 
chain, whose working strength is measured by its 
weakest link, working automatically when tiie raw 
material and the proper conditions are supplied. 
For instance the supply of raw material for the 
manufacture of protein is everywhere inexhausta- 
ble. Its manufacture is governed chiefly by activi- 
ties of the Azotic bacteria, and these again depend 
upon the existence and thrift of their particular 
family legume, and its vigorous developement is 
possible only when abundantly supplied, in availa- 
ble form with the various elements entering into 
its make-up; these again depend on the disintegrat- 
ed remains of former generations of plant life; 
and thus the round moves on with a vigor which 
rises and falls in direct ratio with the activities 
that strengthen each individual link in the chain 
and determine the sum of results. It is therefore 
evident that if we would draw largely on this store 
of unlimited wealth of nitrogen, we must have a 
chain that draws, and supply each and every link 
in that chain with the necessary strength to draw 
the load we want, and it rests with each individu- 
al husbandman to determine how heavy a load he 
will make it draw. 



oo. 



